Peter
Stellar
Which of your backyard birds is the greatest character? Where I live it’s Steller’s jay. Here’s a portrait.
A New Form of Beauty: Glen Canyon Beyond Climate Change
The quintessential landscape of climate change lies in on the Colorado Plateau: it’s Lake Powell, where no one can be sure what will be land, what water. Photographer Peter Goin and I collaborated on a beautiful book about a place where beauty itself is a question mark.
Working on Earth
The land has changed. But so have the ways we look at the land–whether we live there, or merely visit. An environmental history of the rangelands of east-central Arizona, based on an oral history with a long-time rancher. It’s a chapter in an anthology published by University of Nevada Press.
Generating Controversy
A story commissioned by National Parks magazine, about the impact of the Navajo Power Plant on the local people living nearby.
Star Trek: How Birds Use Electromagnetic Cues to Travel
How do migrating birds find their way at night? An overview of recent research on the topic, from Audubon magazine.
Terms of Engagement
We’ve tried denial, and now grudging acceptance. Neither has worked so well. Maybe Germany provides a better model for how to talk about–and effectively deal with–climate change. A column from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Taking Earth’s Temperature: The Film
After a long haul, production for the new film from my friends at IDEALab is complete! I did the screenwriting: Watch for the documentary Taking Earth’s Temperature: Delving into Climate’s Past, and learn how scientists are able to monitor past climates with amazing accuracy. The film will screen on PBS beginning August 16.
Phoenix Tries To Rise from the Flames
The sweltering heat island that envelops Phoenix every summer is Phoenicians’ own fault. But can clever design help lower the mercury? An assessment from a High Country News special issue.
Southwestern Farmers Share Their Water with Endangered Birds
Why would beleaguered New Mexico farmers share scarce water supplies with a nondescript songbird? Read the full account of a new chapter in the West’s water wars in this Audubon feature, with photos by Mike Lundgren.
WW II-Era Law Keeps Germany Hooked on ‘Brown Coal’ Despite Renewables Shift
Even as it continues through a huge build-out of renewable energy, Germany continues to rely on the world’s most polluting fuel for a big percentage of its electricity. A report for InsideClimate News.
Catching Fire: Restoring Arizona’s Overgrown Forests
The Southwest’s overgrown ponderosa pine forests need help. A broad-based restoration initiative in Arizona aims for long-term ecological integrity, and for good jobs in the woods. Read the story, and see Chris Crisman’s splendid photos, at Nature Conservancy Magazine.
Why Is Germany’s Greenest City Building a Coal-Fired Power Plant?
Germany’s Energiewende or “energy transition” is far from a smooth path. One of the speed bumps on the way is a giant new coal-fired power plant under construction in Hamburg. A site report for InsideClimate News.
Despite New Obstacles, Germans Still Aim for Future Without Nukes or Fossil Fuels
It’s a national project at least as ambitious as America’s effort to reach the moon, and fraught with obstacles. Yet Germany is serious about switching to renewable energies while switching off nuclear and fossil-fuel electricity. A progress report for InsideClimate News.
A Key Experiment to Probe the Future of Our Acidifying Oceans
In a Swedish fjord, European researchers are conducting an ambitious experiment aimed at better understanding how ocean acidification will affect marine life. A field report for Yale Environment 360.
Will Navajos Approve a Grand Canyon Megadevelopment?
A proposal for a touristic megadevelopment in the Grand Canyon, on the edge of one of the U.S.’ poorest communities: what could go wrong? An overview for the High Country News.
Teaching
I teach graduate classes in science communication in the School of Communication at Northern Arizona University, where I direct the Graduate Certificate in Science Communication. I also direct the university’s Master of Arts in Sustainable Communities Program, an interdisciplinary effort in teaching and research that focuses on community sustainability, study of the human and natural […]
Cutting a Lifeline
Arizona’s San Pedro River is a green corridor in the desert, and an important pathway for migratory birds. But a huge proposed development nearby threatens the river’s flow. A report for Audubon.
A Thousand Invisible Cords
The new field of community and ecosystem genetics seeks to understand how genetic changes within individual species can ripple through entire ecosystems. This hour-long documentary, screened by numerous PBS stations, profiles how scientists have untangled these ecological connections. I helped write the script, with Dan Boone.
Pick Your Poison
Thanks to Rachel Carson’s crusade, DDT was banned and birds are rebounding. If only it were that simple. A retrospective look on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring.
Long Returns
Where do you put your hope for the future? I put mine in seeds, and in exuberant boyhood. A column from Orion.
