The Amazon forest along the Tambopata River in Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A study last month in the journal Science argued that pre-Columbian peoples had little impact on…
Terraced rice paddies in Yunnan. Many of China's current agricultural areas were made by clearing forests and other natural vegetation hundreds to thousands of years ago. Photo by: Rhett A.…
This month, momentous events will occur on the global scene that will set the tone for whether 2012 will be a hopeful year or one in which dislocations and disconnects…
Line plot of global mean land-ocean temperature index, 1880 to present, with the base period 1951-1980. The black line is the annual mean and the red line is the five-year…
The Congo rainforest today in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Three thousand years ago (around 1000 BCE) several large sections of the Congo rainforest in central Africa suddenly vanished…
Researchers have uncovered corncobs dating back at least 3,000 years ago in two ancient mound sites in Peru according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of…
The Alangyi coastline. Photo by: Pierre Fidenci. Voters in the January 14 Taiwanese presidential election will decide the fate of the island’s last pristine wilderness known as the Alangyi Trail.…
The Maya city of Tulum. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Researchers have garnered further evidence for a smoking gun behind the fall of the great Maya civilization: deforestation. At the…
Nile crocodile in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. DNA has shown that the Nile crocodile is in fact two very different species: a bigger, more aggressive crocodile and a…
Nature study finds Wars twice as likely during hot, dry years Armed men on the island of New Guinea, which has seen its fair share of civil conflict. Photo by:…
A birders' paradise with a violent past. A motmot in Colombia's Sierra Nevada. Photo by: Miguel Hernandez . The highest coastal mountain on the planet rises 18,942 feet (5,775-meters) above…
Glenn Hurowitz is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC. You can join the campaign to protect England’s forests through the impressive Save Our Woods…
In 1206 AD Genghis Khan began the Mongol invasion: a horse-crazed bow-wielding military force that swept through much of modern-day Asia into the Middle East and Eastern Europe. But aside…
As a child I read about the near-extinction of the American bison. Once the dominant species on America's Great Plains, I remember books illustrating how train-travelers would set their guns…
Prominent climate change denialist and past advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Viscount Christopher Monckton, has persisted in labeling protestors in Copenhagen 'Hitler Youth' despite little historical connection. The initial exchange between…
In 1515 Leonardo Da Vinci, artist and engineer, invented a mechanical lion that was given as a gift to Francois I, then King of France. The original was lost, but…
