This story was originally published by Grist. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As the country watched floodwaters rise across the Carolinas in the wake of Hurricane Florence this month, Puerto Ricans were still reeling from a storm that tore through the island a year ago.

We’re just beginning to understand the toll climate change takes on mental health When psychiatrist Janet Lewis thinks back to the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, she still remembers the horizontal trees and the collective grief.

In late May, an open letter appeared on Medium penned by Kat Taylor, an overseer of Harvard’s investment fund. Taylor was resigning her position in protest because portions of the university’s multi-billion-dollar endowment have gone to “land purchases that may not respect indigenous rights” and “water holdings that threaten the human right to water.”

A few weeks after US Customs and Border Protection completed a border wall along Arizona’s southern boundary in 2008, a monsoon arrived. Floodwaters rose to 7ft, nearby patrol roads eroded and debris clogged the wall’s mesh fencing and grates, turning it into a temporary dam.

Jim Probst has dedicated the last five years to building a climate movement that's equally concerned with local coal miners' well-being as it is with the consequences of coal mining itself.

It’s 2018, and you might be wondering: Is it alright for men to smell like rosemary and heather growing amongst dry wood in the sunny, Garrigues region of France?

Blue-lace agate: This crystal will give you a baseline level of self-esteem. If worn regularly, it might even allow you to feel a fleeting sense of confidence in your own abilities and worth.

I live in an apartment just off Broadway, one of New York’s highest-decibel streets, in a location so close to the subway that I feel a rattling in my room every five minutes (eight minutes on weekends). My roommates, a couple probably/hopefully in the process of uncoupling, spend most of their free hours adding to the noise levels by playing the sort of music that is like a prolonged moan, or maybe a whale dying, while yelling at each other. When in a good mood, they narrate everything they are

The humble sunflower appears not quite of this earth. Its yellow crowned head sits atop its stalk like a green broomstick. Its seeds, arranged in a logarithmic spiral, are produced by tiny flowers called disc florets that emerge from the center of its head and radiate outward. But aside from being a biological marvel, the sunflower is also often in the scientific spotlight. From understanding how new plant species emerge to studying “solar tracking,” which is how the flowers align themselves wi

If extraterrestrials were to observe Pride, they might gain the false impression that all queers are very fun and also love Verizon, or Verizon loves them—it’s hard to say. I’ll have you know, dear aliens, that queerness comes in every form under our sun (your star). This Pride itinerary is for queers like me, who are not fun, but still damn proud. 6 AM All gather in a room and read The Well of Loneliness, silently and to ourselves, while eating steel-cut oats and raisins (separate dishes). (Ka

Definitive List of Things That Are and Are Not Feminist Clouds: yeah, extremely feminist. I feel liberated just thinking about them. Monuments: no, especially when they draw attention away from the landscape Sun: not feminist, too gravitationally controlling of other planets Moon’s relationship with the ocean: highest level of feminist discourse Space: yes, very feminist, even with the sun included Hurricanes: just the eye of the storm is feminist Secondary colors: yes, could not be more

Welcome to the separatist nation of Planned Parenthood, which has its origins as a humble clinic founded in 1916 on the radical notion that women are people. Before a tour of our feminist sanctuary, I’d like to do an emotional check-in.

1. The first step to speaking Your Truth is to really want Your Truth — your raw, pulsing, bona fide truth that has been trapped inside the clam of your body for too long! Let her out, baby!

Thirteen-year-old Ezadin Mahmoud was pronounced dead on August 27th, 2014, in Portland, Maine. His heart was beating and his breath was still warm, but his brain stem had been severed. He had been practicing backflips with his brothers when he landed on his head. If radioactive tracers were inserted in his veins, it would show his blood rerouting around the swollen brain stem, like water moving around a dead log. One might note how his pupils failed to respond to light. If removed from the venti

The rock salt now grinding under my tires came from an ephemeral lakebed or dried up sea, and as to where it was before that, I do not know.

SUBLIMATION someday, when I am ready, I hope to be born into a ring of dead stars, circling the universe, unseen. physicists may detect an unequalizing force in the atmosphere that they cannot trace to known matter. no one will expect me to explain myself; humans are the only creatures who spend half their lives explaining their lives to each other. neighboring trees get to know each other by detecting where the other tree has taken up nutrients and sunl

For chef Evan Hennessey, seaweed not only shapes the flavor of his dishes, but is also key to shaping what he calls a “new New England” food culture. After combing the Rye cove for half an hour, chef Evan Hennessey has found what he is seeking. He dips his hand under the low, tidal water to pull out a burgundy, iridescent piece of seaweed and then holds it up proudly, for his friend and me to see. He grips it by the base, so its wide, smooth fronds—the leafy part—lifts in the wind, spreading ou

Passive, tired faces look across the waiting room of the Health and Counseling Center, as one girl pushes sand around with a tiny rake. There’s no visible indication that anything is wrong, but mute anxiety suffuses the room. Disabilities underlie Reed in the same way, as imperceivable disruptions shape students’ lives in imperceivable ways. During the 2009-2010 academic year, 124 students identified themselves as having disabilities. Only five were reported to have a visible physical disabilit