Swamp Feelings
Annie Proulx’s 2022 book Fen, Bog, and Swamp is a melancholy love letter to wetland ecosystems. But missing from this lament, Nino McQuown argues, are hopeful histories of resistance.
Tagged: Water
Grappling with the Drying Riverbeds of the Agua Fria
As the once flowing Agua Fria river runs dry, Rachel Howard discusses how Arizona communities are living with climate change.
What Minnesota’s Mineral Gaze Overlooks
Minnesota state agencies have a history of seeing the landscape with an eye toward extraction, writes Andrew Hoyt, ignoring water resources and Indigenous sovereignty in favor of risky mining.
Farms, Fertilizer, and the Fight for Clean Water
In Portage County, Wisconsin, 95 percent of the nitrate in groundwater comes from agriculture, and it’s having major health consequences for residents. Ground Truths editors Ben Iuliano and Carly Griffith find out how community members have used scientific and legal advocacy to fight for cleaner drinking water.
Living with Lead in Milwaukee
In 2021, rates of childhood lead exposure in Milwaukee were nearly double the state average. In this episode of Ground Truths, Juniper Lewis and Carly Griffith learn more about this public health crisis.
Diving into the Aquatic Depths of East Asian Ecohorror
In ecohorror movies like Shin Godzilla and The Host, pollution fights back in the form of rampaging sea monsters. Lindsay S. R. Jolivette traces the significance of water in these films—and what it reveals about our worst nightmares.
It’s Time to Decolonize the Great Lakes
Caitlin Joseph argues that Indigenous water governance practices are necessary to creating a more equitable Great Lakes.
To Build a New Capital City, Indonesia Must Design for Resilience
Indonesia plans to move its capital city from Jakarta to Borneo. Jeamme Chia, Gioia Montana Connell, and Dewi Tan argue that the new capital provides an opportunity address existing housing, water management, and land issues.
Be Like Water, An Abolitionist Relationality
What does abolition mean for the everyday ways we relate to ourselves, to other humans, to the land, and to the more-than-human world? In this poetic essay, Ki’Amber Thompson wonders how water—and the call to “be like water”—might change the way we think and talk about abolition.
Faking Niagara Falls, A Visual History
A visual history by Daniel Macfarlane digs into the archives to document how Niagara Falls was remade for energy, tourists, and profit.
