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Following Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria — not to mention the floods, wildfires, and storms that put 2017 on the books as one of the most disastrous years ever — some 4.7 million people registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But what exactly is FEMA’s role in relief and recovery? A conversation with the agency’s leader takes you inside the oft-misunde...
As secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres led the global adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. But she was not always so hopeful, and recalls a turning point as she consciously shifted her attitude from despair to stubborn optimism. Jeff Goodell, author of The Water Will Come sits down with Figueres to reve...
Federal funds could not be used to pay for sugar-sweetened beverages under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps), if recommendations from the Bipartisan Policy Center are adopted. In its 2018 report, Leading with Nutrition, the center calls for restrictions and incentives that would recast SNAP as a tool for healthy eating. Other...
As our country's natural resources are squeezed, communities are finding that conservation solutions that make economic sense rule the road. Bike and trail systems are finding support through unexpected partnerships among conservationists, business, and community interests. The Walton Family Foundation has worked with partners to build over 250 miles of multi-use and natur...
In 2016, filmmaker/photographer Pete McBride and writer Kevin Fedarko set out on a 750-mile journey on foot through the entire length of the Grand Canyon. But their quest was more than just an endurance test – it was also a way to draw attention to the unprecedented threats facing one of our most revered landscapes. Throughout their passage, McBride and Fedarko encountered...
World order is never in stasis for too long. And indeed, we seem to be witnessing a historic shift now. The relatively stable decades after World War II saw gains for global democracies, rapid economic growth fueled by globalization, and the birth of the Internet. But they also saw the speeding of global warming, widening inequality, and the scourge of transnational terror...
Many experts argue that massive government mobilization on the scale of World War II deployment is needed to address the catastrophe of climate change. Such is the scope of the Green New Deal, a policy calling for 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, universal health care, living wages, and jobs guarantees. But some economists argue it could cost between $51 trillion and...
With crop production increasingly threatened by unpredictable weather and a world population expected to grow 30 percent by midcentury, how are we going to feed everyone? The race to reinvent the global food system is on, and solutions you’ve probably never heard of are already in play. One company is tackling problems around industrial agriculture by growing cell-based me...