In South L.A., a Growing Interest in Urban Gardening

A Place Called Home Offers Local Youth a Chance to Farm in the Middle of South Central Avenue

A Place Called Home is one of the treasures of the South Central Avenue corridor. It’s been so successful at serving young people ages 8 to 21 (they’re called members)—providing academic enrichment, training, mentorship, homework help and tutoring, athletics, arts programming, and a high school-dropout recovery partnership with L.A. Unified School District—that it’s now in the process of expanding into a building across the street from its headquarters at Central and 29th Street.

Among the many offerings at A Place Called Home is an urban agriculture program. It’s popular with members—and …

July 7, 2016

The Campaign to Save India’s Tigers Ignores the Human Cost of Conservation

Saving South Asia’s Regal Cats Has Plunged Thousands of Women Into Poverty and Ignominy

By Lisa Margonelli | March 30, 2016

Tigers are for most of us a hypothetical necessity.

Hypothetical in the sense that very few of us spend any time around tigers outside of zoos, though we interact with …

Could Nanotechnology Spark Another ‘Silent Spring’?

A Biologist Investigates How the Booming Demand for Microscopic Materials Could Threaten Fragile Ecosystems

By Olivia Osborne | March 4, 2016

Nothing can compare to the first night in a rainforest. In Honduras, in 2007, I hung my hammock beneath a lavish tree canopy, closed my eyes, and let insect chirps, …

Methane Is Invisible, Ubiquitous, and More Powerful Than We Imagined

A California Gas Leak Is Revealing the Outsize Punch of an Underestimated Molecule

By Lisa Margonelli | February 10, 2016

Made of one carbon and four hydrogen atoms, lighter than air, methane is a democratic molecule. You make it, I make it, cows and coal mines emit it, as do …

How to Reclaim Broken Public Places

From Dirty Streets in Bangalore to a Ragged River in L.A., Revival Requires Community

By Marianne Krasny | January 6, 2016

How do you revive a broken place?

That’s a question that I have pondered for more than 15 years, visiting and reading about places broken after long slow declines—from vacant lots …

Do Beautiful Parks Strengthen Democracy?

To Frederick Law Olmsted, Designer of Many of America’s Most Iconic Landscapes, Common Spaces Are Key to Getting Beyond Our Own Narrow Individualism

By Garrett Dash Nelson | December 17, 2015

In 1846, shortly after his 24th birthday, Frederick Law Olmsted wrote to a friend, full of dismay about the prospect of finding a purpose in life. “I want to make …

environment

In South L.A., a Growing Interest in Urban Gardening

A Place Called Home Offers Local Youth a Chance to Farm in the Middle of South Central Avenue

The Campaign to Save India’s Tigers Ignores the Human Cost of Conservation

Saving South Asia’s Regal Cats Has Plunged Thousands of Women Into Poverty and Ignominy

Could Nanotechnology Spark Another ‘Silent Spring’?

A Biologist Investigates How the Booming Demand for Microscopic Materials Could Threaten Fragile Ecosystems

Methane Is Invisible, Ubiquitous, and More Powerful Than We Imagined

A California Gas Leak Is Revealing the Outsize Punch of an Underestimated Molecule

How to Reclaim Broken Public Places

From Dirty Streets in Bangalore to a Ragged River in L.A., Revival Requires Community

Do Beautiful Parks Strengthen Democracy?

To Frederick Law Olmsted, Designer of Many of America’s Most Iconic Landscapes, Common Spaces Are Key to Getting Beyond Our Own Narrow Individualism

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There’s More Healthy Food in South L.A. Than You Think

And There’d Be Even More, If Elected Officials Supported Local Initiatives Instead of Trying to Attract Big Supermarkets

South L.A. Doesn’t Need Saving

Instead, the Area Could Be a Savior to a California That’s Pushing out Its Working Class

Food Studies Is Not as Frivolous as You Might Think

A Growing Academic Field Seeks to Understand Labor Conditions and Trade Agreements That Bring Us Our Daily Bread

They Tried to Arrest Me for Planting Carrots

My South L.A. Neighborhood Didn’t Have Decent Fruits and Vegetables. So I Planted My Own.

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