Down to Earth

Down to Earth

The biodiversity crisis, explained

Introducing Down to Earth, our new project on the biodiversity crisis

By Eliza Barclay and Brian Anderson Apr 12, 2021, 7:00am EDT

Why a reporting initiative on the science, politics, and economics of an ecological catastrophe is so badly needed.

A better solution to Florida’s hurricane problem

By Benji Jones@BenjiSJones Updated Sep 29, 2022, 5:35pm EDT

Coral reefs can protect coastal cities from deadly floods, if only we keep them alive.

Earth’s future depends on the Amazon. This weekend, it’s up for a vote.

By Benji Jones@BenjiSJones Sep 29, 2022, 10:40am EDT

In Brazil’s election Sunday, President Jair Bolsonaro could be voted out. Here’s what that means for the rainforest.

Blowtorching spotted lanternflies is, in fact, a bad idea

By Benji Jones@BenjiSJones Sep 16, 2022, 10:15am EDT

What the war on invasive lanternflies gets wrong.

The race to find 2,100 missing species before they go extinct

By Benji Jones September 3

You probably have “forever chemicals” in your body. Here’s what that means.

By Benji Jones August 25

Hidden inside the Inflation Reduction Act: $20 billion to help fix our farms

By Benji Jones August 16

Listen to the heartbeat of the largest animal to have ever lived

By Benji Jones August 11

Meanwhile, Congress is set to pass a huge wildlife conservation bill with bipartisan support

By Benji Jones August 8

Down to Earth

Why scientists are desperate to find a salamander that’s been missing for 71 years

More than 2,000 species worldwide are considered lost. Could finding them avert extinctions?

By Benji Jones August 1

Beavers are heat wave heroes

By Benji Jones July 22

Otters are thriving in … Iowa?

By Benji Jones July 4

This could be the coolest summer of the rest of your life

By Benji Jones June 22

How Yellowstone’s animals survive a catastrophic flood

By Benji Jones June 17

A teensy, tiny glimmer of hope for polar bears

By Benji Jones June 16

Why investors suddenly care about saving the environment

By Benji Jones June 15

The pollution from Russia’s war will poison Ukraine for decades

By Benji Jones June 2

Here’s where dangerous ticks are spreading across the US — and what to do about them

By Benji Jones May 27

The eel-shaped parasite that threatens a $7 billion economy in the Great Lakes

By Benji Jones May 24

What’s killing the world’s biggest fish?

By Benji Jones May 12

One-fifth of all crocodiles, snakes, and other reptiles are threatened with extinction

By Benji Jones April 27

Hacking coral sex to save an ecosystem in peril

By Benji Jones April 22

Growing up Maasai and the art of healing the Earth

By Benji Jones March 16

Animal sounds are a marvel of evolution. We can’t afford to drown them out.

By Neel Dhanesha March 14

The bizarre deep-sea creatures living on the Endurance shipwreck

By Benji Jones March 9

The troubling link between electric cars and ... flamingos?

By Benji Jones March 9

The loss of insects is an apocalypse worth worrying about

By Benji Jones March 6

Oops, cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was probably a bad idea

By Benji Jones March 4

5 signs of how climate change is unraveling Earth’s ecosystems

By Benji Jones March 1

Scientists are recruiting elephant seals to eavesdrop on whales

By Benji Jones February 24

These tiny succulent plants are being poached by the thousands

By Meredith Lawrence February 23

The bad news about your avocado habit

By Benji Jones February 13

How gray wolves divided America

By Benji Jones February 12

The manatees are starving

By Benji Jones February 8

There’s a Covid-19 epidemic in deer. It could come back to haunt us.

By Brian Resnick February 3

One Good Thing: A soothing tabletop game about birds

By Brian Anderson February 2

Paleontologists study the past. This one has a warning for the future.

By Neel Dhanesha February 2

The extinction crisis that no one’s talking about

By Benji Jones February 1

Tarantula bites are excruciating. Their venom could unlock better painkillers.

By Neel Dhanesha January 31

Parasites that thrive in a warming planet are killing Minnesota’s moose

By Liz Scheltens January 28

A new theory helps explain the epic mystery of bird migration

By Benji Jones January 27

The animal that’s everywhere and nowhere

By Benji Jones January 25

This map may make you feel better about the state of the planet

By Benji Jones January 21

Earth is running low on wildlife. Plants will be next.

By Benji Jones January 13