It will not be possible to solve global warming without dealing with the dramatic global and local inequalities in carbon emissions and the wealth created from them.  Since the Industrial Revolution began, some people and some nations have been pumping a lot more carbon into the atmosphere than... [More]

Are pristine rainforests the only ones that matter?  We know that forests do change as they age, developing some unique characteristics when mature, and that some species cannot live outside of large swaths of ancient tropical forests. But what about the rest of tropical forests- the... [More]

A new global “accessibility” map further demonstrates that humans now have easy access to almost all of Earth’s land.  Using global data for roads and other transportation systems, researchers at the European Commission and the World Bank developed a map of access time, in min... [More]

China's explosive economic growth has awed the world, and is now felt in every corner of the Earth.  As a result, earth systems are being changed at unprecedented rates, while bringing more people into a modern lifestyle than ever before. While we normally perceive these changes in te... [More]

At last!  After nearly one year online, my paper with Navin Ramankutty introducing Anthropogenic Biomes (Anthromes), is now in print in the October issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.  Even better, it is on the cover! The paper can be viewed online (with permission) at ... [More]

We live in interesting times.  We've now realized that our activities are changing global climate and thereby harming both ourselves and the rest of the biosphere.  And we are begining to do something about it.  International efforts are assessing and attempting to manage our climate-... [More]

Appropriately enough, I'm going to begin with a thought that pushed me to start this blog, which I recorded on the morning of August 8, during the Ecological Society of America annual meetings in Milwaukee.  I was taking a break from the conference and reading an article in the New Yorker a... [More]