Category: Reviews

A shaggy, brown dog stands on a snowy bridge and looks backward at the camera.

2018 Year in Review

As 2018 draws to a close, our editors reflect on a year of climate crisis and environmental exploitation and consider the urgency of environmental art, activism, and scholarship.

Lake Erie seen from above, with swaths of green ribbons cutting through the blue water, evidence of an ongoing algal bloom

Outswimming Extinction in the Great Lakes

Dan Egan’s compelling narrative of recent challenges to Great Lakes ecosystems raises intriguing questions about invasion, evolution, and species survival.

piles of ivory tusks engulfed in flames

Should We Empathize with Poachers?

Globalization makes animals more vulnerable to illegal trafficking, even as regulations restricting poaching have increased. An ecologist reviews Rachel Nuwer’s new book and asks what role empathy should play in addressing animal trafficking.

Woke Environmentalism

Environmental justice is the future of environmental activism. A new documentary reader edited by Christopher Wells chronicles the birth of the environmental justice movement.

A peacock stands on reddish earth in the center of the image. His briight blue and green plumage fills the enttire frame.

Birds on the Brain in the Ancient World

In ancient Greece and Rome, birds filled more than the skies. Jeremy Mynott’s new book explores birds in ancient imaginations and the science, pastimes, art, and literature they inspired.

A Pig Born a Commodity, Raised as a Friend in Neflix’s Okja

To some, this pig is family. To others, she’s food. In a review of Netflix’s Okja, a geographer explores how the film’s representation of super pigs and human-animal friendships asks us to rethink our relationships with nonhuman animals.