On the road to decarbonization, Anthropocene’s latest newsletter is your smart guide. Each edition will zero in on a key issue, filter out the hype, and point you to terrific writing guaranteed to get you thinking.
Societies have reshaped landscapes for thousands of years. So why is the Anthropocene so destructive?
Researchers show humans have transformed the majority of terrestrial ecosystems for the past 12,000 years without causing large scale extinctions. Colonization, appropriation and displacement are likely to blame.
Researchers demonstrate how carbon taxes can reduce global poverty . . . not exacerbate it
Distributing carbon tax revenues on an equal-per-capita basis would reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide by 6 million
The unrealized potential of seaweed farming to clean up agricultural pollution
A research team calculated how strategically-planted beds of seaweed could help to clean up one of the world’s most polluted coastal environments, the Gulf of Mexico
The Wild Ride of This Energy Transition
Change is happening in jolts, confounding expectations. Is that a cause for dread—or optimism?
Sustainability science is changing the world
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Current Issue
Buy High, Sell Low: Managed Retreat from the Coasts by Elizabeth Rush
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A Memo from the Year 2050: How We Defeated the Worst Zoonotic Diseases by Brandon Keim
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Applying the Airbnb Business Model to Nature Conservation by Seema Jayachandran
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The Race to Build an Air Conditioner that Doesn’t Cook the Planet by Emily Underwood
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How to Plant the Forests of the Future by Lauren E. Oakes
Back Issues >>
Hacking Nature
For decades, humans have modeled technology on observations of the natural world. But new discoveries about nature—and tools for manipulating it—have opened up novel approaches potentially more powerful than mere imitation to solving Human Age problems.
A kelp elevator could speed up seaweed’s route to biofuels
By making kelp grow four times faster, a simple technology could provide the massive amounts needed for affordable, ocean-based biofuel and other climate solutions
What’s the Fastest Way to an Energy Miracle?
First amp up R&D then fade in a carbon tax
Are We Approaching Peak Stuff?
Almost imperceptibly, we are stepping off the consumption treadmill
The Anthropocene Nightstand
Bookmarks for a Human Age
What’s the Fastest Way to an Energy Miracle?
First amp up R&D then fade in a carbon tax
Using seawater for cooling could be a sustainable option
Researchers found that just one cubic meter of seawater has the same cooling energy as a solar farm the size of 68 football fields—or 21 wind turbines.
Sustainability science is changing the world
Learn how with our free newsletters
Writers:
David Quammen
What if evolution isn’t linear, as Charles Darwin proposed when he first sketched the tree of life?
Emily Anthes
Amphibious architecture responds to floods like ships to a rising tide, floating on the water’s surface.
Oliver Morton
The godlike powers of geoengineering irrevocably change the human’s relationship with Planet Earth.
Frances Cairncross
What is the optimal rollout of carbon taxes and research subsidies to speed up the transition to a low-carbon economy?
David Biello
Welcome to the brave new world of artificial intelligence for conservation.
Veronique Greenwood
The rise of fast fashion and the technology that needs to change to keep your clothes out of the garbage.
Fred Pearce
Some economies may be quietly, and surprisingly approaching a phenomenon economists call “peak stuff.
Akshat Rathi
What if we could transform cement from a climate wrecker into a carbon sponge?
Ted Nordhaus
The climate change apocalypse problem
Andrew Revkin
The word “anthropocene” has become the closest thing there is to common shorthand for this turbulent, momentous, unpredictable, hopeless, hopeful time—duration and scope still unknown
Vandana Singh
How might science fiction constructively contribute to the Human Age?
Reader-Supported Journalism
Anthropocene is reader-supported journalism. That means that a significant portion of our operating costs comes from people like you—that is people who believe that it is time to start talking about environmental solutions, not just problems. Membership comes with benefits including high-end print editions, conversations with authors, and networking opportunities.
Daily Science
We pore through stacks of peer-reviewed journals so you don’t have to. Our Daily Science posts provide short, sharp summaries of the most compelling sustainability science research from around the world—a compendium found nowhere else.
Sponsorships
Organizations and businesses can support independent reporting within an editorial beat, such as climate, health, biodiversity, and cities.
FAQs
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