You’ve probably eaten seaweed, used it for walking, or taken it along with your morning vitamins.
Human Landscape
Talking Tongass: First Impressions from the Last Frontier
After several weeks of traveling, I’ve finally arrived in Sitka, Alaska, where I’m working with the US Forest Service in the Tongass National Forest.
Perspectives from the People’s Land: When the Cree Say No
Ed. note: This is the third installment in Perspectives from the People’s Land, Naomi Heindel’s blog about her summer research in James Bay, Quebec. Follow the links to check out Part 1 and Part 2. What does it mean when a Cree steward, or tallyman, says “no” to proposed development? “Sometimes there’s something very large behind that two-letter word,” explains […]
Conga No Va: Peruvians Die in Gold Mine Protests
Protests against a planned gold mine in Cajamarca, Peru, turned violent last week, resulting in five deaths. The conflict pits American mining giant Newmont against locals who claim that the mine will poison their water and destroy their livelihoods. FES’ own Vrinda Manglik was in Peru to witness the protests.
Will Nanotubes Create an Environmental Health Crisis?
Carbon nanotubes are among the most extraordinary materials ever constructed, capable of revolutionizing industries from solar energy to space travel. But for all their futuristic promise, nanotubes pose a grave environmental health threat, and have been linked to lung cancer. Will nanotubes change the world for better, or for worse?
Perspectives from the People’s Land: First Nations, Forestry, and Ferocious Flies
Have you ever been in northern Quebec in bug season? Black flies, horse flies, deer flies, moose flies, then a fifteen minute “bug window” – usually just before dusk, during the changing of the guard – followed by mosquitoes and no-see-ums. I’ve spent my summers in northern Quebec canoeing and portaging, splitting firewood and scouting rapids, and the bugs have […]
Preserving Subsistence: A Land Use Battle in an Alaskan Wilderness
Preserving Subsistence was originally published on May 6, 2012 in These Fifty States, a Yale College publication devoted to capturing different aspects of place across America. Find them at thesefiftystates.org. Ricky Ashby is not an easy man to track down. He has no phone, no office door, no email address. He lives alone in a cabin on the Noatak River in […]
How the West Was Won: The Sage + Westies Photo Essay
What happens when a magazine and a student group collaborate to put out a call for images that tell stories about the North American West? Inboxes rapidly fill up with muskoxen and lots of people gain an excuse to drink Oregon beer while looking at mind-blowing pictures. A selection of photos from beyond the 100th meridian.
An Unsettling Experiment: Dispersants in the Gulf
On April 20th, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, kicking off a long summer of videos of crude gushing into the sea. Two years later, the offshore oil business is booming, and conventional wisdom has it that the Gulf has fully recovered from the disaster. Not so fast, says Sandy Aylesworth, in an in-depth investigative report.
Cultivating Community
Amy Coplen presents stories from our frontline warriors in the battle to grow food and community – giving voice to New Haven’s urban gardeners.
Patterson: “Outrageous” That Farmers’ Lawsuit was Dismissed
Last week’s featured article, Organic on the Offensive, inspired strong reactions from people on both sides of the genetically modified agriculture debate. Among the responses Sage received was a letter from Don Patterson, a Virginian farmer and the man who helped catalyze the lawsuit.
Organic on the Offensive: Nation’s Farmers Sue Big Ag
A group of farmers are waging a class-action lawsuit against giant GM seed company Monsanto. The farmers’ argument? “An invention that poisons people is not patentable.” Ben Goldfarb explores an ongoing case with the power to revolutionize the way America grows its food.