Back Issues

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2009

July-Sept 2009 (Vol. 10, No. 3)

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Is a Warmer World a Sicker World?
As scientists piece together how climate impacts disease, strange patterns are emerging: mosquito outbreaks can follow drought, shorter migrations can make butterflies sick, and more birds (not fewer) can ward off West Nile virus.
By Roberta Kwok

Operation Sex Change
Imagine waking up to discover that your mother, your sister, and your friends’ wives are all men. That could be reality for invasive fish if a radical plan to exterminate them takes shape.
By Cynthia Mills

On the Fence
People construct fences, sometimes across whole continents­, on the poetic assumption that good fences make good neighbors. Unfortunately, for wildlife, gated communities are rarely tranquil.
By Doug Fox

 

and moresee the full table of contents

April-June 2009 (Vol. 10, No. 2)

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Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
If, as researchers are predicting, carbon dioxide increases will lock in rising seas for a thousand years, then it’s time to consider some radical proposals that run headlong into conventional environmental wisdom
By Jim Robbins

Biofuels Déjà Vu
Lured by dreams of “green” fuel, could we end up trampling biodiversity in the name of saving the planet?
By David Malakoff

Taming the Blue Frontier
Ten thousand years ago, humans made the shift on land from hunting and gathering to farming. Now the same transformation is taking place at sea. This time, can we get it right?
By Sarah Simpson

and moresee the full table of contents

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January-March 2009 (Vol. 10, No. 1)

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The Mushroom Messiah
Faced with bioterrorism, fuel shortages, and a warming planet, where should we turn for solutions: a) religion, b) technology, or c) fungus? By John Weier

The Nature of the Fiscal World
Will the environment gain or lose from the financial meltdown and its economic aftermath? By Tali Woodward


Not So Silent Spring
Blackbirds in Europe are mimicking car alarms, ambulance sirens, and cell phones at jarringly life-like volumes. And they aren’t the only wildlife switching frequencies in order to be heard over the human din. By Dawn Stover

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

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2008

October-December 2008 (Vol. 9, No. 4)v9n4-cover4

Imposter Fish

Misnaming seafood isn’t just a ripoff. It’s a global phenomenon that’s wreaking havoc on ocean conservation. by Douglas Fox

The Most Popular Lifestyle on Earth

Forget lions, tigers, and sharks. The billions of tiny parasites that make a living castrating and brainwashing their hosts may be the new kings of the food web. by Carl Zimmer

The Sterile Banana

As uniformity replaces diversity, some of your favorite fruits could be on the cusp of extinction. by Fred Pearce

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

 


July-Sept 2008 (Vol. 9, No. 3)

Confessions of a Hit Man

Our mark was an invasive pest that had made a remote tropical island its home. But good and evil are not so easily discerned in ecological systems, even when a place looks like Eden. by Jeffrey A. Lockwood and Alexandre V. Latchininsky

Ecological Freakonomics

How does tourism drive deforestation? How are divorce rates linked to resource consumption? Whatís the connection between clean water and international terrorism? by Jonah Lehrer

The Problem of What to Eat

Organic farming and eating locally make intuitive sense. But does conventional wisdom about eating sustainably hold up to the science? by Natasha Loder, Elizabeth Finkel, Craig Meisner, and Pamela Ronald

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

 


April-June 2008 (Vol. 9, No. 2)

Do Trees Grow on Money?

After years of failed attempts to merge market economics with rainforest conservation, the US$60 billion carbon market might finally be the ticket. That is, if money is all it’s going to take. by Fred Pearce

Identity Crisis

 

Hybridization can be both a creative and a destructive force. And it’s on the rise. Should we embrace it or quash it? by Douglas Fox

A Witness to Violence

 

Long before the Darfur crisis, Michael Fay foresaw that the murderous Sudanese horsemen would not stop at killing elephants. by J. Michael Fay

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


January-March 2008 (Vol. 9, No. 1)

Urban Myths

Pull predators out of the mix, and a once lush green world turns into an ecological shop of horrors. by William Stolzenburg

Ecosystems Unraveling

 

Pristine forests of the Amazon were not encountered in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; they were invented in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. by Fred Pearce

Cancer on a Whole Species

 

The gruesome disease ravaging Tasmanian devils is unlike anything we’ve seen before. by Cynthia Mills

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2007


October-December (Vol. 8, No. 4)

Saint Ursus Maritimus

Icons are about simplicity and clarity. No gray areas. But what happens when the real polar bear clashes with the symbol it has become? by Jim Robbins

Wildlife Contraception

 

Charged with downsizing wildlife populations to fit the geography of the modern world, a small group of researchers is out to replace bullets with family planning. by Douglas Fox

The Vision Thing

 

Imagine swapping Tony Blair for Winston Churchill. Would it transform the timid politics of global warming? by Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


July-September (Vol. 8, No. 3)

Arresting Evidence

State-of-the-art forensic technology is forcing us to face the reality that even our most applauded trade bans and moratoriums aren’t working. From ivory cell phones to shark fin soup, it’s all available—at a price. by Natasha Loder

The Last Gladiators

 

How joyful, really, is the resurrection of a species if the modern world cannot find a single haven for it and if it seems doomed to slip into limbo once more anyway? by Scott Weidensaul

10 Solutions to Save the Ocean

 

We asked a select group of innovative thinkers to go out on a limb. with Martín Hall, Daniel Pauly, David Conover, Amanda Vincent, Kimberly Davis, Carl Safina, George Sugihara, Ussif Rashid Sumaila, and Tundi Agardy

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


April-June 2007 (Vol. 8, No. 2)

Aliens Among Us

Invasive species stand accused of ecological insubordination, mass murder, and other crimes against nature. But the case is far from closed. A Round Table with James H. Brown and Dov F. Sax, Daniel Simberloff, and Mark Sagoff

That Sinking Feeling

 

We dig fossil fuel out of the ground, burn it and fill the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, and then plant trees to soak it back up. If only it were so simple. by Nick Atkinson

Writer’s Block

 

Earnest, pious, and quite allergic to irony: nature writing has none of the trademark qualities that play well in 2007. So is it time for a change? by Jenny Price

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


January-March 2007 (Vol. 8, No. 1)

Forward Thinkers

A biologist in Hollywood, an insect tracker, a pair of ecological architects, and the new leader of the world’s largest conservation network. Here are a few people worth watching in 2007. by Charles Alexander, Frances Cairncross, Eric Sorensen, and John Nielsen

Virginity Lost

 

Pristine forests of the Amazon were not encountered in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; they were invented in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. by Fred Pearce

When Worlds Collide

 

Climate change will shuffle the deck of plants, animals, and ecosystems in ways we’ve only begun to imagine. by Douglas Fox

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2006


October-December 2006 (Vol. 7, No. 4)

Us or Them

Killing predators stands as one of the most age-old and enduring forms of wildlife management. Even now, myth and politics trump ecology. Is there a way out? by William Stolzenburg

Second Chance

 

Cloning could be the Holy Grail of conservation or the ultimate folly. Either way, the fact is, cloning works. by Cynthia Mills

Do No Harm

 

The story of the Hawaiian crow is a parable of doing harm by going to all lengths to do good. What role should the ancient advice of Hippocrates play in endangered species conservation? by Mark Jerome Walters

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


July-September 2006 (Vol. 7, No. 3)

Evolutionary Tinkering

A small group of latter-day Noahs is beginning to explore radical new ways to help species ride out the current wave of extinctions. by Scott Norris

Dig Deeper

 

When context is lost, what kind of tales can biological relics tell? Paleoecologists are forcing us again and again to rethink what was once established fact. by Douglas Fox

Fish Futures

 

George Sugihara thinks the way fish quotas are set is all wrong. Instead, he wants to tap into people’s baser instincts by treating fish catches like tradable poker chips. by Rex Dalton

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


April-June 2006 (Vol. 7, No. 2)

Democratizing Taxonomy

Imagine a portable DNA barcode scanner that could transform people’s relationship with nature. Could such futuristic technology be to biodiversity what the printing press was to literacy? by Marguerite Holloway

Environmental Heresies

 

Over the next ten years, the mainstream environmental movement will reverse its opinion and activism on population growth, urban-ization, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power.

An Interview with Stewart Brand

Get Real

Behind the hue and cry over the Kyoto climate change treaty is one nagging but rarely reported reality: even if every nation in the world complied to the hilt, it would hardly approach solving the problem. by Katherine Ellison

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


January-March 2006 (Vol. 7, No. 1)

Connecting Flights

Never mind the road map for peace. An unlikely marriage between bird conservation and military aviation is thriving on one of the most divisive pieces of real estate on Earth. by Frances Cairncross

Bon Appétit

 

Ecologists are devising invasive species control strategies that would make Julia Child proud. by Joe Roman

Where the Wild Things Were

 

The recent Nature paper proposing to bring cheetahs, lions, and elephants to North America raised a wild rumpus. But are the critics missing the point? by William Stolzenburg

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2005

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October-December 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 4)

Oil Change

The interests of big businesses, environmentalists, and society coincide more often than you might guess from all the mutual blaming. So who needs to change? by Jared Diamond

Four Futures

 

The seeds of the future are to be found in the extremes of the present. So our wildest ideas are the ones that give us insights into the surprises of the next few decades. by Erik Ness

The Look of Success

 

In the wake of successful wolf reintroductions, managers who once fervently defended wolves are now faced with killing them. Are we ready for modern predator management? by Jim Robbins

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


July-September 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 3)

Code Blue for Conservation

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus say environmentalism’s heart has stopped. But making the movement more “progressive” may finish off the patient. Are there better prescriptions? by Charles Alexander

The Protein Gap

 

John Fa is the first researcher to frame the bushmeat crisis as a protein crisis. And his analysis suggests that wildlife activists are behaving like Marie-Antoinette: “Let them eat cake.” by Fred Pearce

Point of No Return

 

Evidence is mounting that fish populations won’t necessarily recover even if overfishing stops. Fishing may be such a powerful evolutionary force that we are running up a Darwinian debt for future generations. by Natasha Loder

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


April-June 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 2)

Are We Consuming Too Much?

The answer seems obvious. But it’s not. Paul Ehrlich, Kenneth Arrow and nine other brilliant minds argue that we’re worrying too much about how much we consume and too little about how to invest. by Jon Christensen

Liquid Assets

 

The Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico is a water factory. Can an ambitious federal program convince water users to foot the bill for the hydrological services? by Katherine Ellison & Amanda Hawn

Edge Walking on the Urban Fringe

 

In the face of inevitable development, Michael Klemens is making his stand for conservation where 10 million people dwell. One man’s uncompelling is another man’s biodiversity. by Kevin Krajick

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


January-March 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 1)

Born Again

William McDonough, a radical architect, dismisses traditional recycling as tired and inadequate. Instead, he’s invented "industrial ecoystems" in which substances and machines are infinitely recycled. by Jim Robbins

Pipe Dreams

 

If the twentieth century was the era of the megadam and the ecological destruction of the world’s rivers, the twenty-first century could be different. It could. But will it? by Fred Pearce

Healing Powers

 

With the finesse of modern market research, a team of undercover conservationists set out to probe the 3,000-year-old demand curve for endangered species in traditional Chinese medicines. by Douglas Fox

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2004

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Fall 2004 (Vol. 5, No. 4)

Burned

Fire is the embodiment of uncertainty, and playing with it is just what Mama said. by William deBuys

Tastes Like Chicken

 

Side-by-side taste tests offer clues to stem the bushmeat crisis in Gabon. by Erik Ness

Living the Good Life

 

In Britain, conservation now counts as a measure of quality of life. by Nancy Bazilchuk

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Summer 2004 (Vol. 5, No. 3)

The Father of All Mass Extinctions

There is a good possibility that losses in diversity in the present will surpass anything in the geological past. Facing that specter could shake the very tenets of conservation. by Peter Ward

No Easy Way Out

 

Human health, wildlife disease, and conservation are inextricably linked. Yet modern medicine has fostered the profoundly dangerous illusion that we are above or apart from the natural world. by Mark Jerome Walters

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Spring 2004 (Vol. 5, No. 2)

What Makes Environmental Treaties Work?

Given the way the environment ignores national boundaries, good global treaties are essential to saving it. Yet, it has become ever harder to create treaties that work. Instead of learning from history, we seem doggedly determined to repeat past failures. by Frances Cairncross

Degraded Darkness

 

It’s tempting to assume that artificial light distresses only a few exquisitely sensitive species. But mounting evidence suggests that disappearing darkness undermines our best conservation efforts. by Ben Harder

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Winter 2004 (Vol. 5, No. 1)

Win-Win Illusions

Over the past two decades, efforts to heal the rift between poor people and protected srea have foundered. So what next? by Jon Christensen

Reflections on the Pond

 

The pond is the universal icon for wetlands. But to Joy Zedler, ponds are the ecological equivalents of fast-food chains, an emblem of the homogenization of the contemporary landscape by Sarah DeWeerdt

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2003

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Fall 2003 (Vol. 4, No. 4)

Virtual Ecosystems

Animated by a few simple yet baffling rules, virtual ecosystems growing in supercomputers bear an uncanny resemblance to real ones. The simulations challenge conventional wisdom about extinctions and invasions. by W Wayt Gibbs

Renting Biodiversity: The Conservation Concessions Approach

 

With all the money we spend making conservation pay for itself, we could just pay for conservation by Katherine Ellison

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Summer 2003 (Vol. 4, No. 3)

Auditing Conservation in an Age of Accountability

Instead of seeing conservation as just a good cause, people are starting to ask “What are your results?” by Jon Christensen

Behavior and Conservation: More than Meets the Eye

 

For years, behavioral ecologists have meticuloustly studied the subtleties of wildlife behavior. Their findings reveal information that conservationists can use. by Douglas Fox

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Spring 2003 (Vol. 4, No. 2)

Making Conservation Profitable

by Katherine Ellison and Gretchen C. Daily

The Conundrum of Biological Control - Weighing Urgency against Uncertainty

by Jason Van Driesche and Roy Van Driesche

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Winter 2003 (Vol. 4, No. 1)

Conservation and Conflict

Until recently, we have thought of war as a humanitarian issue and addressed environmental damage only as a pert of post-conflict clean up. But it is clear that this approach will no longer suffice.

Rules of Engagement for Conservation

Lessons from the Democratic Republic of Congo by John and Terese Hart

Top-Down Meets Bottom-Up

 

Conservation in a Post-Conflict World by Peter Zahler

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2002

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Fall 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 4)

Thinking Like an Ocean

Ecological Lessons from Marine Bycatch by Scott Norris with Martin Hall, Edward Melvin and Julia Parrish

Ground Truthing Conservation

 

Why Biological Exploration isn’t History by Alan Rabinowtz

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Summer 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 3)

Context Matters

Considerations for Large-Scale Conservation by Reed Noss

Old Science. New Science

 

Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Contemporary Management by Chuck Striplen and Sarah DeWeerdt

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Spring 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 2)

Informed Decisions

Conservation Corridors and the Spread of Infectious Disease by Leslie Bienen

Agriculture versus Biodiversity

 

Will Market Solutions Suffice? by Richard Manning

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Winter 2002 (Vol. 3, No. 1)

What Really is an Evolutionarily Significant Unit?

The debate over integrating genetics and ecology in conservation biology by Sarah DeWeerdt

The Fallacy of Passive Management

 

Managing for firesafe forest reserves by James K. Agee

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2001

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Fall 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 4)

Rethinking Insects

What would an ecosystem approach look like? by Timothy D. Schowalter, with Jay Withgott

Turning the Ship Around

 

Changing the policies and culture of a government agency to make ecosystem management work by Jennifer M. Belcher

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Summer 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 3)

Designing Marine Reserve Networks

Why Small, Isolated Protected Areas Are Not Enough by Callum M. Roberts, Benjamin Halpern, Stephen R Palumbi, and Robert R. Warner

Stone-Age Minds at Work on 21st Century Science

 

How Cognitive Psychology Can Inform Conservation Biology by Judith L. Anderson

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Spring 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 2)

Safe Harbor Agreements

Carving Out A New Role for NGOs by Michael J. Bean, J. Peter Jenny, and Brian van Eerden

Selecting Effective Umbrella Species

 

by Erica Fleishman, Dennis D. Murphy, and Ronald P Neilson

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>


Winter 2001 (Vol. 2, No. 1)

Guilty until proven innocent

Preventing nonnative species invasions by Jason Van Driesche and Roy Van Driesche

Nectar Trails of Migratory Pollinators

 

Restoring corridors on Private Lands by Gary Paul Nabhan

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>

2000

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Winter 2000 (Vol. 1, No. 1)

Threads of Continuity

Ecological disturbance, recovery, and the theory of biological legacies by Jerry F. Franklin and others

Making Collaboration Work

 

Lessons from a comprehensive assessment of over 200 wide-ranging cases of collaboration in environmental management by Steven L. Yaffee and Julia M. Woodolleck

and more… see the full Table of Contents >>