Serena Renner

“So often, people who care about the environment think of us humans as the problem,” writes Tove Danovich (@tovedaa.bsky.social) in her autumn Beyond Human column. “But anyone with enough power to make things worse can also make them better.” Case in point is her new community garden plot.

“Trees literally carry evidence in their material selves of the lives of those with whom they have shared space,” writes @berondam.bsky.social ky.social in her new book, When Trees Testify. Her plant subjects have been companions of enslaved peoples and witnesses to terrible injustices.

The venerable New York Times not only determines what’s news but sets the standard for how it should be reported. It has been describing the midterms as if it were a competition between two equally passionate and roughly equivalent sides. This is a mistake.

Some important reminders here for this age of denial and for the lead-up to the midterm elections.

Bangladesh’s floodplains comprise around 80 percent of the country, making Bangladesh severely at risk of coastal flooding and storm surges, which are getting worse as the planet warms. Seasonal flooding is so bad that students often can’t get to school. The solution? Boat schools.

“It’s often when my daughter is demonstrating maximal wonder at nature that I feel confused about my role and responsibility as an Anthropocene parent,” writes Katie O’Reilly. “How does one foster awareness of what’s happening without burdening kids with despair they’re not equipped to process?”

In his September “Lookout” column, @jasondovemark.bsky.social shares his Wallace Stegner-inspired letter to the US government in defense of the federal Roadless Rule. “To allow more roads and more logging in our national forests would annul that right to pursue happiness in our public lands.”

On September 17, Earth Island Journal is hosting a salon in Berkeley featuring Annie Leonard and @jasondovemark.bsky.social. The longtime environmental activists, authors, and thinkers will discuss how storytelling can serve as an antidote to environmental amnesia and inspire action. RSVP today!

This issue was a labor of love and concern for the planet. We hope it can play some small part in helping us reimagine education for a climate-changed future. Check out the issue online, or subscribe to the magazine. (Journalism is also key to education). donate.earthisland.org/page/20964/d...

Our Autumn 2026 special issue on education and the environment is on its way to mailboxes! In it, we cover the impacts of heat and climate disasters on learning but also creative programs that push us to rethink education on a warming planet. Subscribe today! donate.earthisland.org/page/20964/d...

Indigenous activist and scholar Melissa K. Nelson is a fierce advocate for Indigenous rights and for advancing traditional knowledge. In this powerful interview, she talks about engaging the whole body in learning, the value of merging Western and Indigenous sciences, and her vision of education.

ATTENTION ASPIRING AND EARLY-CAREER JOURNALISTS: Earth Island Journal is seeking a fall-winter fellow to help produce our award-winning print magazine and online edition. Our environmental journalism fellowship is paid, and the deadline to apply is August 31! www.earthisland.org/assets/Edito...

Just four years after wildfire swept through Sequoia National Park, thousands of wild sequoia saplings were punching through the ash. This was good news — except that it clashed with the narrative of a quasi-governmental coalition intent on replanting the forest. By @canopyoftitans.bsky.social.

The Tagliamento is one of Europe’s last free-flowing rivers, supporting diverse plants and wildlife along with groundwater. This type of ecosystem has vanished almost everywhere, and a new dam proposal now threatens the Tagliamento, too. By @softurati.bsky.social and @michelelapini.bsky.social.

Uplifting story by Gary Paul Nabhan about biodiversity, Indigenous sovereignty, collaborative stewardship, and solidarity around the US-Mexico border that no metal wall or political maneuvering can stop.

Independent investigations have confirmed that Israeli attacks on Dhayra and other civilian areas around southern Lebanon have included munitions containing a toxic, highly combustible chemical whose use in war is restricted under international law due to its devastating, and often fatal, effects.

ICYMI - The newest data showing the number of billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. for the first half of 2026 was released last week. This includes 12 events costing nearly $32 billion in damages (5th highest for Jan-Jun event count). ➡️ Explore the data at www.climatecentral.org/climate-serv...

What if the quickest, cheapest path to decarbonization isn’t electrification but reducing the need for electricity in the first place, asks climate and technology journalist @sambutler.us. That starts with ours buildings and neighborhoods. Originally published in @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social.

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.

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.

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.

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!

“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.

“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.

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.

🧵 Dear Republican lawmakers, Canada has the largest intact boreal forest on the planet. An increasingly hotter world due to #ClimateChange makes longer dry seasons, far larger wildfires & yes, more smoke. No amount of "raking" fixes it. The scientists warned of exactly this for a very long time /1

Good timing for a thoughtful Canadian wildfire story. Thank you @toughcitywriter.bsky.social for this investigation into the 2024 Jasper fire and what lessons it holds for Banff as well as other communities in Canada and beyond. Spoiler alert: Prescribed and cultural fire can help.

Drill, baby, drill! = Burn, baby, burn! #wildfires

OMG, it's happening! Today is the official publication date of my new book, The Earth Said Remember Me: How to Revive Our Memories and Restore the Planet

My comments on the new @nationalacademies.org report on climate change & extreme weather attribution. The TLDR statement: If anything, the academy understates the strength of the science linking increasingly extreme weather events to climate change: michaelmann.net/comments-on-...

Transport yourself to Lake Manchar in southern Pakistan through this striking visual @earthislandjournal.bsky.social story by photographer Guillaume Petermann. The Mohana people have lived in the region for some 4,000 years. Today, they're adapting to rising pollution and dwindling resources.

830 wildfires burning across Canada right now. And you know what’s going to make it worse in the future? More oil pipelines. This is why our voice and our vote matters.

Hard to describe the sorrow I feel watching the boreal forest burn, summer after summer. I was paddling on a lake yesterday when the smoke came in, and knew what was happening despite not having cell reception. Climate change is a heartbreaker.

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.

“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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

Canada’s first ever #WorldCup win. And holy cow, WHAT a win! 6-0 including an own goal, thanks to CONSTANT pressure. Well done men, the roar in #Vancouver is huge, and the whole country’s celebrating! But a brutal looking injury to Kone, hoping for the best. Keep winning for Kone… #GoCanadaGo

@robertmoor.com's new book In Trees isn’t about tree biology or ecology,” writes @jasondovemark.bsky.social in this book review. It’s “pursuing something harder to wrap one’s arms around: the idea of trees.” This sets Moor on a globe-spanning tour of adventures, misadventures and hard-won wisdom.

Climate vs. Teeth. @earthislandjournal.bsky.social www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...

In this interview with EIJ Editor in Chief @maureennandinimtra.bsky.social, veteran activists @anniemleonard.bsky.social and @acarothers.bsky.social discuss the power of protest, and why we need to exercise and defend this democratic right — now more than ever. Read our Summer 2026 "Conversation."

During her first pregnancy, writer Helena "Ellie" Huizenga knew she should pay attention to Salt Lake City’s air, which is often brown with smog, smoke, and dust. But ozone, a colorless gas, had never crossed her mind. Now pregnant for the second time, she sees ozone as a clear threat. Here's why.

From the “God Squad” making Endangered Species Act exemptions to new research on ocean currents, wildlife, and sea level rise, here are our Summer 2026 “Talking Points.” Plus: balcony solar comes to the US, Syngenta quits paraquat, and 5 countries that should brace for a possible “super El Niño.”

Our Summer 2026 print magazine will hit newsstands and mailboxes soon! In it, you’ll find stories on some surprising ways that heat affects the body; a feature on the return of wildlife to Mount St. Helens, a wild ride with the “Beaver God of Bavaria,” and more! www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...

June 2026 marks the 5-year anniversary of the deadly Pacific Northwest “heat home.” At the time, Associate Editor @serenarenner.com was living in BC, where more than 600 people died. It was a wake-up call to the health impacts of extreme heat — which our Summer 2026 print issue sheds light on.