Blog
The Night Sky is Disappearing, But We Can Save It.
Few things offer the kind of perspective that a salty night sky does. This is a large part of what draws me out into the wilderness—the chance to take in a dome of stars, a sight that reliably reminds me of how small I really am. So I have watched with sadness and panic as night skies have grown brighter and brighter over my lifetime and electric light crowds out the stars, even in places far from cities. Now, the vast majority of people living in the United States cannot…
Just Back From the Metcalf Fellowship
How do you translate complicated scientific research into stories that are both accurate and interesting? How do you figure out how significant new research actually is? How do you get the information you need efficiently from an academic paper? These are some of the questions that have lingered in my mind as I have started to cover science and environmental topics more frequently. Luckily, I recently had the amazing opportunity to devote an entire week to getting answers—and learning how to more effectively report these stories. I was one of ten mid-career…
How do you make it to 100?
Perhaps the real question is what do you do with the next 100 years? That's the question alive for me during the National Park Service's much-celebrated centennial year. I had a great time writing several stories for Outside magazine's beautiful May issue, devoted entirely to national parks. I reported on Erik Lindbergh's plan to build a silent aircraft for tours over Grand Canyon and other beloved parks, a Park Service division that is doing pioneering research into noise pollution, and how innovative public-private partnerships are helping the venerable,…