Climate Crisis

magnified drain fly with dark blue water droplets surrounding it.

Psycho Drain Flies

A trip to the bathroom sends Henry Hughes on a journey to discover what critters are living in the urinals and what we might learn from them in this era of environmental precarity …
Group of young people stand behind a banner that says end fossils finances.

Dissent, Disruption, and Youth Climate Activism at COP28

What actually happens at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COPs)? Cody Skahan gives an insider view and wonders how youth environmental activism can persist amidst crackdowns on protest and the ever-present allure of political power …
a field of pine trees burned down with lines in the soil where they once stood

Does the U.S. Have a Fire Problem?

Richard Bednarski connects the forest fires of 1910 to the subsequent media-driven age of fire exclusion policy, despite scientific evidence for fire inclusion. Did years of this practice worsen the United States’s “fire problem” today? …
A small fishing boat floats on a still, sunny morning sea, with large rocks in the foreground and ice glaciers behind.

“Buying Time,” and Other Charismatic Temporalities of Climate Change

Mark Carey explores the themes of out of time, accelerating time, and buying time in current climate change discourse, arguing that they flatten other social constructions of time and perpetuate empty “scientific” solutions …
A sculpture with two long mosaic pieces of browns, grays, and blacks reaches toward the sky. The sculpture is surrounded by a ring of rust-colored rocks.

Memorializing Wildfire at the Playground

Jessica George interrogates the politics of seemingly apolitical wildfire memorials and examines how climate change-related art challenge the timelessness of conventional monuments …
A piece of white paper with the word "2023" written on it. The paper is placed against a black background.

2023 Year in Review

Edge Effects editors look back on their favorite essays and podcast episodes published in 2023 …