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Prairie dogs are the eyes of the community.
- Terry Tempest Williams

Groundhog Day is most famously celebrated in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where almost always, Phil retreats, forecasting six more weeks of winter. But it is west of the Mississippi where Phil’s cousins, the prairie dogs, may well be offering a more dire prediction—about the fate of humanity. This is why there have been efforts to establish Prairie-Dog Day to bring attention to the plight of these creatures, under attack by ranchers and developers who consider them pests. Read on…

I’ve never made New Year’s resolutions. They can end in feelings of guilt and drudgery. Sometimes they lead to consuming more, like buying exercise equipment—when getting outdoors for regular walks might have a more lasting effect.

I propose a different strategy for next year: Be less ambitious and, in Carlos Castaneda lingo, practice “not-doing.” This will shrink our impact on the resources and ecosystems that make it possible for us to survive. Read on…

As the film, The Story of Stuff, so elegantly illustrates, since the 1940s dark-side capitalists in cahoots with engineers have clandestinely steered our society into becoming relentlessly loyal consumers. As a result, we have neglected our civic engagement and the health of our finite planet. There are several ways to outsmart these misguided and aggravating nudniks. My tips are modeled on the maxims of biomimicry—the laws that govern healthy ecosystems. By thinking like nature, you can avoid being hoodwinked in the first place. Read on…

A few winters ago I was visiting family in Bethesda, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC. As we were driving home one rainy night, I thought I saw a cat dart across the street. At second glance, I realized it was a paunchy rat. Accustomed to seeing zigzagging cottontails in the headlights in my home state of New Mexico rather than rats, the sight of this husky vermin left an impression. Read on…

The Ocean Conservancy organizes an annual international coastal cleanup that takes place on the third Saturday of September. Based on their annual collective beachcombing, they publish an informative report called "A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris and What We Can Do About It."

The most frequent items found each year are cigarette butts, plastic bags and food wrappers or containers. This illustrates a huge problem. Cigarette butts and single-use packaging do not break down. Nor are they biodegrading in landfills. Plastic requires sunlight to break down and, if littered, it blows across the landscape, ends up in the rivers and bobs out to the ocean. Future generations could be dealing with a litter-strewn planet for centuries, if not longer. Read on…