There are more than 600 oral history recordings housed where Lina Ortega is an associate curator for the Western History Collections at the University of Oklahoma Libraries. Ortega speaks limited Seminole, one of the languages heard on the recordings. But while reviewing an ordinary tribal government meeting from 1969, she ... read more

This article originally appeared in Nexus Media News. From hurricanes bearing down on Florida to megafires burning in the West, the climate crisis seems to be everywhere, all at once. But on TV and film screens, mentions of climate are far rarer. A study by the University of Southern California’s ... read more

Your environmental footprint doesn’t end when you die: Traditional burial uses toxic chemicals like formaldehyde along with steel and concrete, and the acres of grass in cemeteries use fertilizer and water. Cremation uses a large amount of energy. But a new startup called Transcend wants to rethink cemeteries as forests, ... read more

Qatar’s upcoming World Cup has already been a human rights disaster, as the rapid construction of multiple stadiums has caused the reported deaths of 6,750 migrant workers since 2010 when FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar. And there’s yet another controversial issue for soccer fans to face: its devastating environmental ... read more

Author Jim Collins (Good to Great, Built to Last) has been chronicling Patagonia’s unique approach to business since the late 1980s, when he wrote and taught a case study on the company for his Stanford Graduate School of Business classes on entrepreneurship. He has written for Inc. about how Patagonia ... read more

One of the most overlooked emergencies of the climate crisis is extreme heat, which, research suggests, is killing more than 5 million people a year. Deaths from severe heat strokes and related complications increased 56% in the U.S. between 2018 and 2021, and that could only get worse across the ... read more

When a fire started in a forest near Big Sky, Montana, on a September afternoon last year, a camera perched on a mountaintop detected the first plume of smoke. The camera, from a startup called Pano, had been installed only a week earlier as part of a pilot; the local ... read more

Jen Sidary was enjoying dinner at Kiki’s on the Lower East Side when she saw a message on her phone: Russia had invaded Ukraine. It was February 24, and Sidary, who spent her career in fashion, was in the middle of showcasing Ukrainian brands at New York Fashion Week. At ... read more

If you’re sick of paying Comcast or Cox for internet access, a startup called Ukama will help you become your own internet service provider. The company’s technology, small cellular base stations that can run on solar power, will also soon be tested in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo. ... read more

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, less than 20% of the population has internet access. But a U.S.-based startup called Ukama is starting to test the use of small, solar-powered cellular base stations that can help more people there get online. In places like the U.S., the technology could help ... read more

Every week for the past six weeks, the menu has changed at a San Francisco restaurant and wine bar called Shuggie’s Trash Pie. That’s because the ingredients depend in part on what farmers plan to throw out on any given day: The restaurant’s mission is to fight food waste. When ... read more

Mushroom leather. Apple leather. Pineapple leather. Cactus leather. There’s a growing list of vegan leather alternatives made from plants (in some cases, mixed with plastic). But a new startup thinks that it can get more realistic results not by relying on one type of plant, but a blend of multiple ... read more

The news that the founder of clothing retailer Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, is “giving away” the $3 billion business, with all profits now going toward fighting climate change, is a testament to Chouinard’s long-standing personal commitment to actions, large and small, that align with his values. But while the coverage that’s ... read more

Over the years, fortunes were made when innovation spiked most dramatically: The arrival of the Internet and search engines was one such moment. The ascendance of mobile–specifically the advent of the iPhone in 2007, the App Store, and the first Android handset in 2008–was another. Now as much of the ... read more

“Forever chemicals” are everywhere. The thousands of chemicals in the group known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are found in cookware, packaging, cosmetics, clothing, carpet, electronics, firefighting foam, and many other products. The chemicals, which do not naturally break down, are so widespread that they’re found in the ... read more