Living Earth

Explore our archive of articles on Living Earth.

Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter

Journal Article

If trapping out beavers ranked among humanity’s earliest crimes against nature, bringing them back is a way to pay reparations.

Tending the Wild

Journal Article

What looked to European settlers like untamed wilderness was actually the product of millennia of intentional human influence. Calling it wilderness, or “virgin territory,” gave them license to occupy it, cultivate it, “develop” it, and “improve” it.

The Four Nutriments

Journal Article

On Elevating the Human Narrative

Journal Article

Judy Rodgers | ...I think decisions about things like governance or institutions source from our awareness. We can’t build something if it’s outside the scope of our awareness. We can’t design a true commons if we’re in a very limited consciousness.

Returning to Indigenous Worldview

Journal Article

...witnessing brave communities who have managed to hold onto Indigenous language and ways, and continue their advocacy for the Earth, is important. We can appreciate the Indigenous experience unfolding today as a model for what is happening to all of us.

Gallery 3 | Guardians of the Sacred in Tibet

Journal Article

The nomads and other Tibetans hold a reverence for the natural world, which ensures that they remain stewards of the land they have lived with for thousands of years. Small pockets of awareness of the land's magic, its sacredness, its deep inner value, still remain.

Council of the Wild Gods

Journal Article

Many years ago, in a wide-ranging conversation with environmental education students, I asked if the human species might have a particular purpose in the planetary ecosystem. The students puzzled for a few moments before one advised me that human beings have no purpose in the community of life. No purpose. Take a moment here.

Rejoining the Great Conversation

Journal Article

[Greta Thunberg's words] brought tears to my eyes, as my soul heard her speak about real care for the Earth—for this living, beautiful being who has given us life, who has nourished us with Her endless generosity, even as we have abused and desecrated Her, raped and pillaged Her body, which our culture regards greedily as just a “resource” for our endless use and abuse.

Look Up!

Journal Article

Slowly, making my way along the rutted dirt path, I reached the top of the mesa, set down my backpack, leaned against a nearby log, and looked up at the sky and clouds. In that moment, everything changed.

The Lie of the Land | Conversation and Essay

Journal Article

In this crisis to which we’ve brought ourselves, we can only change what is happening through transforming the way we imagine things. That happens through art. This is why I think stories and images are crucial if we’re to cope with our impending fate with kindness and dignity. The story may not actually be about our own survival, but it has to be about how we fit in.