Longform Writing
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Longform Writing
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Quietest Place
The Quietest Place in America Is Becoming a Warzone
Amid the panoply of greenery that makes up the Hoh Rainforest, a gap in the old growth forest arises. Well, more accurately it’s a gap in a tree—a hollow inside a towering sitka spruce that stands like an open door. Beyond it, a short game trail through ankle deep mud and pools of water accumulated from the week’s rains ends in a clearing lined with ferns. Gordon Hempton guides a group to the clearing where, on a log dotted with the tiniest plants and mosses sits a red stone, roughly one square inch.
Quietest Place
The Quietest Place in America Is Becoming a Warzone
Amid the panoply of greenery that makes up the Hoh Rainforest, a gap in the old growth forest arises. Well, more accurately it’s a gap in a tree—a hollow inside a towering sitka spruce that stands like an open door. Beyond it, a short game trail through ankle deep mud and pools of water accumulated from the week’s rains ends in a clearing lined with ferns. Gordon Hempton guides a group to the clearing where, on a log dotted with the tiniest plants and mosses sits a red stone, roughly one square inch.
Finger Lakes
The Crypto Reckoning in the Finger Lakes
Seneca Lake is a mirror to the heavens. At sunrise, its waters are pink and purple pastels. Ducks and Canada geese languorously traverse its lightly undulating surface. A mallard spreads his wings, lifting off into the frigid morning as ripples spread out behind him on the watery runway. It’s a perfectly bucolic scene: quintessential Finger Lakes, really.
To witness this early-morning ritual is to see what’s taken place uninterrupted for eons in one of the most beautiful places in New York; Seneca Lake is one of two handfuls (and one extra digit) of watery tendrils stretching north to south in the middle of the state.
But while the scene may be familiar, the soundtrack is anything but. The quiet you’d expect on the lakeshore has been replaced by a perceptible thrumming, like a breath caught in the chill air. It doesn’t dissipate. Instead, the artificial noise washes over the lakeshore, thrusting what was once timeless squarely into 2022 and the crypto-mining era.
Finger Lakes
The Crypto Reckoning in the Finger Lakes
Seneca Lake is a mirror to the heavens. At sunrise, its waters are pink and purple pastels. Ducks and Canada geese languorously traverse its lightly undulating surface. A mallard spreads his wings, lifting off into the frigid morning as ripples spread out behind him on the watery runway. It’s a perfectly bucolic scene: quintessential Finger Lakes, really.
To witness this early-morning ritual is to see what’s taken place uninterrupted for eons in one of the most beautiful places in New York; Seneca Lake is one of two handfuls (and one extra digit) of watery tendrils stretching north to south in the middle of the state.
But while the scene may be familiar, the soundtrack is anything but. The quiet you’d expect on the lakeshore has been replaced by a perceptible thrumming, like a breath caught in the chill air. It doesn’t dissipate. Instead, the artificial noise washes over the lakeshore, thrusting what was once timeless squarely into 2022 and the crypto-mining era.
Holding the World’s Breath at 11,135 Feet
Holding the World’s Breath at 11,135 Feet
There are just a few moments from my past that, having left an indelible mark on my life, I can now return to in an instant. My first dance at my wedding to “I Only Have Eyes for You.” The phone call I received, as I dressed to go to work, telling me my mother had died. Opening my college acceptance letter with a crisp rip of the envelope.
These are life-altering highs and lows. When Aidan Colton—a research scientist I had met for the first time just hours earlier—handed me a glass globe encased in tape, that simple exchange became another one of those memories. It may seem odd that a stranger could affect me so deeply, but what Colton handed me was more than a trinket. It was a flask filled with the very peculiar time we live in, heavy as all of human history. Standing there in the searing sun on the side of a volcano, I held everything for a brief moment.
Holding the World’s Breath at 11,135 Feet
Holding the World’s Breath at 11,135 Feet
There are just a few moments from my past that, having left an indelible mark on my life, I can now return to in an instant. My first dance at my wedding to “I Only Have Eyes for You.” The phone call I received, as I dressed to go to work, telling me my mother had died. Opening my college acceptance letter with a crisp rip of the envelope.
These are life-altering highs and lows. When Aidan Colton—a research scientist I had met for the first time just hours earlier—handed me a glass globe encased in tape, that simple exchange became another one of those memories. It may seem odd that a stranger could affect me so deeply, but what Colton handed me was more than a trinket. It was a flask filled with the very peculiar time we live in, heavy as all of human history. Standing there in the searing sun on the side of a volcano, I held everything for a brief moment.
Heat Pumps Are Ready to Have a Moment
Heat Pumps Are Ready to Have a Moment
It took nearly 170 years, but geothermal heat pumps are finally ready to have a moment. The poorly named appliance—they heat and cool buildings—could be the key to ensuring our homes are more comfortable and climate pollution-free.
The world is in a zero-sum race to electrify everything and prepare our homes, apartments, and offices for the climate crisis. Using the ground as a natural source of heating and cooling and electricity to move that warmth or chill into homes would be a huge step to do just that, allowing us to kick fossil fuels and climate-damaging chemicals. And with the federal and more state governments catching onto their benefits and offering incentives to install them, it’s heat pumps’ time to shine.
Heat Pumps Are Ready to Have a Moment
Heat Pumps Are Ready to Have a Moment
It took nearly 170 years, but geothermal heat pumps are finally ready to have a moment. The poorly named appliance—they heat and cool buildings—could be the key to ensuring our homes are more comfortable and climate pollution-free.
The world is in a zero-sum race to electrify everything and prepare our homes, apartments, and offices for the climate crisis. Using the ground as a natural source of heating and cooling and electricity to move that warmth or chill into homes would be a huge step to do just that, allowing us to kick fossil fuels and climate-damaging chemicals. And with the federal and more state governments catching onto their benefits and offering incentives to install them, it’s heat pumps’ time to shine.
I Dug a Green Grave and Learned the Truth About the Dirty Death Industry
I Dug a Green Grave and Learned the Truth About the Dirty Death Industry
I’m standing with John Davis in front of his grave. It was the very first grave he dug three years ago in the firm soil of the Adirondacks in a place known as Spirit Sanctuary. He had planned to be buried on his land, but he became so enamored with this exact spot, tucked among willows and behind a pine tree, that he decided it would be his final resting place instead.
I just hope Davis doesn’t die anytime soon for both personal reasons—he’s very nice and at 55 years old, much too young to go—and technical ones. After weeks of rain and snow, the 3-foot deep pit in the ground is full of water and a thin veneer of ice is creeping around its edges. If Davis were to go now or in another wet winter, his loved ones would have to bring a sump pump out to bury him.
I Dug a Green Grave and Learned the Truth About the Dirty Death Industry
I Dug a Green Grave and Learned the Truth About the Dirty Death Industry
I’m standing with John Davis in front of his grave. It was the very first grave he dug three years ago in the firm soil of the Adirondacks in a place known as Spirit Sanctuary. He had planned to be buried on his land, but he became so enamored with this exact spot, tucked among willows and behind a pine tree, that he decided it would be his final resting place instead.
I just hope Davis doesn’t die anytime soon for both personal reasons—he’s very nice and at 55 years old, much too young to go—and technical ones. After weeks of rain and snow, the 3-foot deep pit in the ground is full of water and a thin veneer of ice is creeping around its edges. If Davis were to go now or in another wet winter, his loved ones would have to bring a sump pump out to bury him.
How to Fix Crypto Art NFTs' Carbon Pollution Problem
How to Fix Crypto Art NFTs' Carbon Pollution Problem
The “crypto-” carbon crisis is evolving. And after years of low-key use, art and collectibles tied to what are known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded into the global discourse as the Next Big Thing. Embedded with it, though, is an existential tension.
Crypto-art buying is built on the same blockchain technology currently frying the climate. As the potential bubble of crypto art inflates ever higher, so too do the risks it poses to the planet. Each transaction is another glug of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Without major overhauls to how tokens are created and sold, critics warn, it could ultimately help foist untold horrors on the biosphere and, by extension, humanity. Though steps are planned to mitigate the effects, if nothing is done soon enough, it could leave crypto art perpetuating the same broken system of extraction and commodity trading that it’s promising to upend.
How to Fix Crypto Art NFTs' Carbon Pollution Problem
How to Fix Crypto Art NFTs' Carbon Pollution Problem
The “crypto-” carbon crisis is evolving. And after years of low-key use, art and collectibles tied to what are known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded into the global discourse as the Next Big Thing. Embedded with it, though, is an existential tension.
Crypto-art buying is built on the same blockchain technology currently frying the climate. As the potential bubble of crypto art inflates ever higher, so too do the risks it poses to the planet. Each transaction is another glug of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Without major overhauls to how tokens are created and sold, critics warn, it could ultimately help foist untold horrors on the biosphere and, by extension, humanity. Though steps are planned to mitigate the effects, if nothing is done soon enough, it could leave crypto art perpetuating the same broken system of extraction and commodity trading that it’s promising to upend.
News, Explained
NEWS, EXPLAINED
News, Explained
NEWS, EXPLAINED
How Far-Right Extremists Are Using the Climate Crisis to Go Mainstream
How Far-Right Extremists Are Using the Climate Crisis to Go Mainstream
Oregon has been a hot bed of far-right activity for years, but the wildfires have cast the militias in a new light. Misinformation has been rampant as unprecedented fires lit up the state. False rumors of “antifa” igniting fires and coming to loot people’s homes have raced across Facebook.
That led some communities to grab arms and stand in harm’s way as the flames approached, setting up checkpoints where they reportedly threatened journalists at gunpoint, and even getting a briefing from a sympathetic local law enforcement officer on the best way to gun people down and not face trial. (He’s since been placed on leave.) It’s an escalation of fringe ideologies to try and usurp power in chaos and shows another avenue the far-right could use the climate crisis for violent ends.
How Far-Right Extremists Are Using the Climate Crisis to Go Mainstream
How Far-Right Extremists Are Using the Climate Crisis to Go Mainstream
Oregon has been a hot bed of far-right activity for years, but the wildfires have cast the militias in a new light. Misinformation has been rampant as unprecedented fires lit up the state. False rumors of “antifa” igniting fires and coming to loot people’s homes have raced across Facebook.
That led some communities to grab arms and stand in harm’s way as the flames approached, setting up checkpoints where they reportedly threatened journalists at gunpoint, and even getting a briefing from a sympathetic local law enforcement officer on the best way to gun people down and not face trial. (He’s since been placed on leave.) It’s an escalation of fringe ideologies to try and usurp power in chaos and shows another avenue the far-right could use the climate crisis for violent ends.
Coronavirus Has Slashed Global Air Pollution. This Interactive Map Shows How.
Coronavirus Has Slashed Global Air Pollution. This Interactive Map Shows How.
The covid-19 pandemic has changed the world, grinding to a halt increasingly large geographic areas and portions of the economy in an effort to slow the virus’ spread.
The impacts have been profound on the ground, but government-mandated lockdowns have also remade the atmosphere. Satellite data from China, the first epicenter of the outbreak, and Italy, the second hot spot, have shown big drops in pollution following lockdowns that limited the movement of people and goods and factories’ ability to produce stuff. With the pandemic now becoming increasingly prevalent in the U.S., Americans have already started moving less as mayors and governors have turned to similar measures.
In an effort to track the impacts, Earther assembled an interactive map to explore the changes in air pollution not just in the U.S. but globally.
Coronavirus Has Slashed Global Air Pollution. This Interactive Map Shows How.
Coronavirus Has Slashed Global Air Pollution. This Interactive Map Shows How.
The covid-19 pandemic has changed the world, grinding to a halt increasingly large geographic areas and portions of the economy in an effort to slow the virus’ spread.
The impacts have been profound on the ground, but government-mandated lockdowns have also remade the atmosphere. Satellite data from China, the first epicenter of the outbreak, and Italy, the second hot spot, have shown big drops in pollution following lockdowns that limited the movement of people and goods and factories’ ability to produce stuff. With the pandemic now becoming increasingly prevalent in the U.S., Americans have already started moving less as mayors and governors have turned to similar measures.
In an effort to track the impacts, Earther assembled an interactive map to explore the changes in air pollution not just in the U.S. but globally.
It's Kids vs. the World in a Landmark Climate Complaint
It’s Kids vs. the World in Landmark New Climate Complaint
On Monday, Greta Thunberg and 15 other young people filed a potentially world-changing climate complaint. On an abnormally steamy day in New York, when sweat built on the brows of the dark-suited diplomats funneling into the United Nations for a major climate summit, the group of teens cranked up the heat even further. They announced that they’re suing five of the world’s major carbon polluters on the grounds that the countries are violating their rights as children.
It's Kids vs. the World in a Landmark Climate Complaint
It’s Kids vs. the World in Landmark New Climate Complaint
On Monday, Greta Thunberg and 15 other young people filed a potentially world-changing climate complaint. On an abnormally steamy day in New York, when sweat built on the brows of the dark-suited diplomats funneling into the United Nations for a major climate summit, the group of teens cranked up the heat even further. They announced that they’re suing five of the world’s major carbon polluters on the grounds that the countries are violating their rights as children.
Analysis
ANALYSIS
Analysis
ANALYSIS
The Key to Passing Good Climate Policy Is Having Real People in Congress
The Key to Passing Good Climate Policy Is Having Real People in Congress
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez featured Taco Mix, objectively the best taco spot in Spanish Harlem, on her Instagram. I tell you this to a) convince you to go there if you are ever in the area, and b) because it speaks to the value of representatives who are normal people.
AOC’s well-documented rise from bartender to congresswoman is indicative of how a healthy democracy should function. In an era where we need climate policy to rapidly scale up, having representatives in Congress who reflect people’s lived experiences is essential to ensuring those policies are just and favor constituents and not corporations.
The Key to Passing Good Climate Policy Is Having Real People in Congress
The Key to Passing Good Climate Policy Is Having Real People in Congress
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez featured Taco Mix, objectively the best taco spot in Spanish Harlem, on her Instagram. I tell you this to a) convince you to go there if you are ever in the area, and b) because it speaks to the value of representatives who are normal people.
AOC’s well-documented rise from bartender to congresswoman is indicative of how a healthy democracy should function. In an era where we need climate policy to rapidly scale up, having representatives in Congress who reflect people’s lived experiences is essential to ensuring those policies are just and favor constituents and not corporations.
The 'Petro-Masculinity' of This Weekend's Trump Highway Rallies
The ‘Petro-Masculinity’ of This Weekend’s Trump Highway Rallies
This weekend, highways from Texas to Kentucky to New Jersey were overrun with Trump-supporting caravans. They tried to run a Joe Biden campaign bus off the road, held up traffic, shut down a bridge, and generally pissed people off and intimidated them. It’s perfectly emblematic of the Trump era, particularly the seamless blend of fossil fuels and toxic masculinity to preserve the status quo.
In the wake of the Trump highway takeovers, there were quite a few comparisons made to the Islamic State: The whole idea of armed people in trucks with identifying flags and regressive views certainly makes for an apt comparison. But there’s also something uniquely American about the rolling Trump rallies.
The 'Petro-Masculinity' of This Weekend's Trump Highway Rallies
The ‘Petro-Masculinity’ of This Weekend’s Trump Highway Rallies
This weekend, highways from Texas to Kentucky to New Jersey were overrun with Trump-supporting caravans. They tried to run a Joe Biden campaign bus off the road, held up traffic, shut down a bridge, and generally pissed people off and intimidated them. It’s perfectly emblematic of the Trump era, particularly the seamless blend of fossil fuels and toxic masculinity to preserve the status quo.
In the wake of the Trump highway takeovers, there were quite a few comparisons made to the Islamic State: The whole idea of armed people in trucks with identifying flags and regressive views certainly makes for an apt comparison. But there’s also something uniquely American about the rolling Trump rallies.
Dildos and Nude Fundraising Show How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Norms
Dildos and Nude Fundraising Show How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Norms
The bushfires in Australia have taken on an end times-type quality to them. Maps show a continent ringed by fire, and it’s been a very real judgment day for ecosystems and communities alike that have been burned over.
That these appeals went viral (and not, say, those of the Red Cross or United Nations) speaks on some level to the power of sex as a motivator. But they also reveal how the internet and the climate crisis are reconfiguring our relationship with each other and the things we care about, from a habitable planet to nudes.
Dildos and Nude Fundraising Show How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Norms
Dildos and Nude Fundraising Show How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Norms
The bushfires in Australia have taken on an end times-type quality to them. Maps show a continent ringed by fire, and it’s been a very real judgment day for ecosystems and communities alike that have been burned over.
That these appeals went viral (and not, say, those of the Red Cross or United Nations) speaks on some level to the power of sex as a motivator. But they also reveal how the internet and the climate crisis are reconfiguring our relationship with each other and the things we care about, from a habitable planet to nudes.